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ELSPA hunts Pirates in the UK

A man from Gloucestershire is currently being investigated by officials from the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) together with Wiltshire County Council Trading Standards for suspected Trademark and Copyright Infringements.

Enquiries commenced following the discovery of the man on the 5th August 2001 at a car boot sale being held near Chippenham, selling what appeared to be a large quantity of counterfeit computer games. In total the man was found to be in possession of 170 discs, which had an equivalent retail value of over £5,300.00.

All the illegal copies of the Sony PlayStation, and Sega Dreamcast games were seized on the day, and underwent further investigation by ELSPA officials who confirmed that the discs were indeed counterfeits.

Further investigations are currently been undertaken by Wiltshire County Council Trading Standards, and pending the outcome, the stallholder may face criminal prosecution for Trademark and Copyright offences.

ELSPA is the computer games industry watchdog, which represents the interests of games publishers. It has a dedicated crime unit, which is made up of investigators across the country and often works with the Police and Trading Standards to combat computer games piracy.

The Director General of ELSPA, Roger Bennett, gave the following comment on the incident:

"ELSPA on behalf of its membership wish to applaud the action of Wiltshire County Council Trading Standards Officers who have once again removed a substantial amount of unauthorised products from the market place."

ELSPA's advice to shoppers on how to spot a fake game is:

1. Buy from a recognised outlet, never from street traders, 'door-to-door' salesmen or car boot sales.